Be-panah

TWENTY SIX

Itne kaha masroof ho gaye tum,
Jo dil dukhane bhi ab nahi aate.

▫️▫️▫️▫️▫️▫️▫️▫️▫️

From the next day, Zaroon started to visit Qirat's home every morning before going to office. His day wouldn't start without seeing his wife's face. After getting ready, he would head over to her place and have breakfast with his in-laws. He'd also get her different flowers every day. For a week, Qirat simply ignored him and his flowers. She would not even spare him a single glance on the breakfast table and leave for her office with Jahangir. Some days, he'd even come to pick her up from the office and drop her back home. Throughout the way, he'd speak to her about his day, while she'd continue making no reactions.

At the start of the second week though, when she came out of her room and saw Zaroon playing with Samiya, she sighed tiredly. "Why do you have to come here everyday?"

Zaroon snapped his eyes at her, surprised. He couldn't believe she was talking to her. "Do I need a reason to visit my sasural?"

"Zaroon, come. Breakfast is served." Naila came out of the kitchen and smiled.

"And you," Qirat got angry at her mother, "why do you keep entertaining him everyday? Cooking food for him and all."

"Qirat, why are you behaving this way? He's the only son-in-law of this house. Why won't I cook for him?" Naila lightly scolded Qirat.

"Right, son-in-law," Qirat humorlessly laughed, "tell me, in the last six months, had he ever called you once to ask about your wellbeing? Has he ever done anything that a son-in-law should do?" She shouted. "But no, don't see his mistakes. He shows up one day and you start cooking your ass off for him."

Naila, Shiza and Armaan stood wide-eyed at Qirat's sudden outburst, while Zaroon just hung his head in shame. An uncomfortable silence enveloped the room, but Qirat didn't stay long enough to experience that. As soon as she finished speaking, she stormed out of the apartment.

After a few minutes of silence, Zaroon quietly passed Samiya to Shiza and left as well.

The entire day Qirat kept thinking about everything she had said, and she kind of felt guilty about it. She knew Zaroon had made mistakes in the past, but she had no right to embarrass him in front of her whole family. So she decided that she'd apologize to him when he would come the next day.

But to her utter disappointment, he didn't show up the next day. She even waited for a while after breakfast, thinking he might be running late, but she had to eventually leave for office.

Jahangir opened the door of the car for her to sit. As she settled inside, her eyes fell on a beautiful bouquet of purple gypsophila flowers. He wasn't there himself, but he made sure his flowers reached her. She held the bouquet close to her heart, and her eyes filled with tears. As the car zoomed off, what she didn't notice was another car parked on the opposite side of the street, in which Zaroon was sitting. He was upset about what Qirat had said to him yesterday, but he also knew that it was the truth. He had neither been a good husband to her, nor a good son-in-law to her mother. And if she didn't want to see his face every morning, he wouldn't show it to her. But one more truth was he couldn't function without seeing her face. That was the reason why he was downstairs. He saw her come out of the building and get inside the car. Even though it was for a very small time, that was enough to keep him sane.

______________

"Are you okay?" Neel's voice broke Qirat's trance.

"Huh?" She said and looked around. They were in their office canteen. "I'm fine."

"Don't say you're fine when you're clearly not." He shoved a spoonful of fried rice in his mouth. "Missing him?"

Of course she did. She missed him like crazy. It had been three weeks since she had shouted at him, and ever since then he had not shown her his face. The only contact between them was the bouquet of flowers that waited for her in the car everyday.

"Why don't you just call him?" Neel suggested.

"No," She said too quickly, making Neel sigh.

That night, she returned home at ten in the night. It was Friday and she was wrapping up the entire week's work before the weekend. Naila was watching television, while Armaan and Shiza had already gone to bed. Having a baby makes you realise how precious sleep is, and the new parents slept whenever they got a chance.

"How was the office?" Naila asked, shutting the TV.

Qirat shrugged casually. "Fine."

"Should I serve dinner?"

"No, I'll take it." Qirat walked to the kitchen, washed her hands, served herself a plate and came back to the living room.

She mixed rajma and chawal with the spoon and took a bite. Naila was about to speak when her phone rang. The screen showed Zaroon's name.

"Why is he calling you?" Qirat frowned.

"He calls me every night to check up on me." Naila casually said and left the room to talk to him.

When she came back, she found Qirat in the exact same place. "What do you mean check up on you?"

Naila sat beside her. "It means he calls me, asks me about my health, about Samiya, and tells me about his day. Like a son does."

"Since when?"

"Since the day you shout at him. First night, he called to apologize for being a bad son-in-law, and after that our calls became consistent."

Qirat was speechless. "Why didn't you tell me?" She asked after a few minutes.

"What was there to tell?" Naila asked, "And anyway, didn't you say that you didn't want to talk about Zaroon the last time I tried to talk to you?" Naila was talking about a few days ago when she had suggested she should talk to Zaroon and Qirat had straightaway said no.

"I was mad then." Qirat tried to reason.

"And now? Are you still mad?" Naila questioned.

"I..I don't know." Qirat sighed.

Naila caressed Qirat's back. "Talk to him, Qirat. Communication is the most important part of any relationship. Talk."

With that, Naila left Qirat alone with her thoughts.

🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸

I think I love Zarat a teeny tiny bit more than Mehraan. ;)

What about you?